State Chooses Western-Most Parcel For Prison Site

State officials have narrowed down the specific parcel of land where Utah’s new state prison will be built. But some environmentalists say they need more information to feel comfortable with that decision.

The Prison Relocation Commission decided last fall to build the new prison somewhere inside a 4,000-acre plot of land just west of the Salt Lake International Airport. On Friday, state building managers ruled out a more eastern parcel on that property because it’s adjacent to an old landfill. There is some concern about contamination at the site.

Marilee Richins is interim deputy director of the Utah Department of Administrative Services.

“We feel very confident that we can build a facility that is environmentally responsible while continuing to be fiscally responsible and operationally adequate for what we need,” Richins says.

Lynn de Freitas is executive director of Friends of Great Salt Lake. Her organization was asked to help inform the prison relocation process. But she says the state has not made available reports showing the soil and hydrologic analysis of the east parcel. Without the data, de Freitas says she doesn’t know if the landfill is dangerous, and can’t support the decision to choose to build on a more remote, environmentally sensitive parcel.

“If you’re trying to think about reducing impacts overall to a critically sensitive environment, you could say there is a logic to explore fairly carefully and thoroughly, the parcel that’s already in a vicinity where there are impacts going on,” de Freitas says.

The prison is scheduled to be complete in 2020. Construction can’t begin until the soggy soil is prepped and filled. That’s expected to take at least a year.

A Utah Republican Senator is working on a bill to back out of a deal that would allow Salt Lake City to increase the sales tax. The agreement was a consolation for the city in which the new prison would be relocated.

Utah Lawmakers will vote Wednesday to confirm the Prison Relocation Commission’s recommendation to build a new state prison near the Salt Lake International airport. But elected officials on the city’s west side aren’t giving up efforts stop the move.

Water levels in the Great Salt Lake have dropped close to record low, prompting the Great Salt Lake Advisory Council to talk about how that low water affects everyone and everything that depends on the lake.

The railroad causeway across the Great Salt Lake was built in 1959, and since then it’s permanently altered the lake’s natural water flow. Making changes to it could have unanticipated consequences for the lake environment. But Union Pacific Railroad officials say they have to do something now or it won’t be safe to run trains across the lake.